@Cinta, growing rubber trees root-bound will slow their growth. Re-potting to a larger pot, whether you root-trim or not, will encourage more rapid growth. Judicious stem-trimming will keep your plant(s) at whatever size you want as well as encourage branching.

drdawg (Ken Ramsey) - Tropical Plants & More
[url=www.tropicalplantsandmore.com]www.tropicalplantsandmore.com[/url]
If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees.

I have two very sad Ficus elastica plants (the variegated variety), their pots sitting out in the shrubbery because they got horrible sunburn two years ago ... both have needed pruning and repotting badly for a long while. Maybe when the weather cools a bit (if that ever happens!) I'll get around to repotting them.

The regular F. elastica grows like a weed and gets gigantic here in parts of Florida and the roots can cause issues if a tree is planted too close to walkways, driveways and house foundations. I always heard it was invasive here in the state but it's not on the invasive list like a few other Ficus are. There's a cultivar in the database called 'Burgundy' that looks identical to the regular F. elastica to my eyes but it's said not to grow as large: http://garden.org/plants/search/text.php?q=Ficus+elastica&bu...

One of mine is the 'Decora', labeled as such when I purchased it a few years ago; but the other was left here by the former homeowners and I haven't looked at it close enough to determine which cultivar it might be. I know it looks somewhat different from Decora and may be 'Variegata'. I need to get it out and look closely at the foliage to see if I can determine a name.

Needless to say, all my plants are potted. They all have to come in each fall. I cannot tell you the number of ficus/jade/scheflera/aloe I have had to leave out because of lack of space in the greenhouses for them. I have probably lost over 100 plants over the last two decades because of winter-kill alone.

drdawg (Ken Ramsey) - Tropical Plants & More
[url=www.tropicalplantsandmore.com]www.tropicalplantsandmore.com[/url]
If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees.

I feel confident at root pruning but I certainly am not in your League Ken. I just know if I loop off the top it will be the end.

I nicked the stems to make it branch last year so I am getting more branches now. I picked these up in little 4" nursery pots years ago. I always killed the green one so I was taking a chance at keeping these alive and have been surprised how big they got from those little tiny pots.

In the one big pot is Ficus Burgundy Robusta, in the other pot I have two plants Ficus Elastica Belize and Fiscus Elastica Tricolor

Other than freezing them to death, I don't think you can kill a ficus with even minimal care. Experiment with one or two of the side branches, and root those cuttings right along side the "mother" plant(s). I bet that you will not only get branching from those cut-ends, you'll also get newly rooted cuttings. I just love to experiment. That's part of my learning process.

drdawg (Ken Ramsey) - Tropical Plants & More
[url=www.tropicalplantsandmore.com]www.tropicalplantsandmore.com[/url]
If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees.

Me too! If I'm not experimenting, I'm bored. I put this Ficus in the ground for a temporary summer vacation (2 individuals, but always treated as "a plant.") Then got bored with that, and pulled most of the leaves off of one. Sure enough, it's started to make side branches. I'm supposed to be leaving the other trunk alone to compare, but I can't promise how long that will last...

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